Civic Definitions

"We will prepare every Skidmore student to make the choices required of an informed,
responsible citizen at home and in the world."

Informed, Responsible Citizen

Informed, responsible citizens participate in the life of the community. They have
the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to build community and effectively
evaluate and respond to public issues and concerns.

Civic Engagement at Skidmore

Civic engagement requires an understanding of political, economic, cultural, scientific,
and other institutions aimed at the public good; democratic principles and practices;
and concern for public issues and scientific and cultural literacy. Civic engagement
entails research, deliberation, principled advocacy, direct action, or service that
enhances quality of life in the local, regional, national or global community.

The following experiences help build the foundational understanding for civic engagement:

Civic Skills: include the ability to work cooperatively to solve complex social and environmental
issues by forming and expressing opinions, interacting civilly with diverse others
to achieve goals, participating in collective decision-making processes, organizing
people for action, and implementing policy decisions.

Community Service: includes voluntary actions that seek to provide resources or services for the promotion
of a public good.

Although many courses incorporate civic learning, civic skill development, and community
service, Skidmore highlights a subset of civic engagement courses that require students
to apply their understanding through one or more of the following:

Community-Based Research: is scholarship involving collaboration of faculty and/or students with community
partners that is directed toward investigating, assessing, and addressing behavioral,
social, educational, cultural, and environmental problems.

Service Learning: is a credit-bearing educational experience that integrates meaningful community
service with guided reflection to improve student learning of course content, student
sense of social, artistic and environmental responsibility, and responds to an identified
community need.